Yesterday NC State officially announced the hiring of DBs coach George Barlow and he and Coach Doeren didn’t waste any time loading Coach Barlow up with some talent. The coaches wasted no time in hitting the road after the recruiting dead-period which ended yesterday and set Twitter ablaze with all the “Red Light” action. For those who have been under a rock, the “Red Light” coming on is the coaching staff’s way of saying we got a new football commit and last night the “Red Light” came on 3 times as two 4-stars and a 3-star all tweeted their commitments last night.
3-star DB from Maryland, Elliot Davis was the first to commit minutes after Coach D and Coach Barlow left his house for their in-home visit.
Davis absorbed all that he learned from the Wolfpack coaches and thought about his college options for about 30 minutes. The 6-foot-2, 175-pounder was essentially down to NC State and Rutgers, with an official visit planned for the latter at the end of the month.
Davis called up Doeren and gave his verbal commitment, becoming the 27th member of NC State’s No. 28-ranked recruiting class. Davis joined Charlotte Davidson Day senior cornerback Michael Stevens as the cornerbacks recruits for the class.
“Having Coach Doeren and Coach Barlow definitely played a big role in the timing of my commitment in doing it today,” Davis said. “He [Doeren] basically told me the things that he’s been telling me for a while now. He didn’t necessarily tell me anything new. Just to see it in person and hear the passion in his voice, he is an extremely genuine guy.”
Officially committed to play ???????? at #NCState!! Extremely blessed & thankful for the opportunity gods… http://t.co/94ewy3qaIt
— Daylyt (@ElliottsBigEGO) January 17, 2014
Something that I think is great about Coach Doeren and his staff preaching a family atmosphere is that the guys buy-in. After each commit #pack14 commits and some of the current players start tweeting things like:
Early enrollee from #Pack14 BJ Hill
@ElliottsBigEGO welcome to the family bro!!!
— BJ Hill (@BJHill5) January 17, 2014
Pack14 TE – Cole Cook
Welcome to #PACK14 @ElliottsBigEGO glad to have you man!
— Cole Cook (@cookmiester1) January 17, 2014
#Pack14 QB – Jalen McLendon
@ElliottsBigEGO ayeeeeee #WPN #Pack14 congrats fam , now let's get this money ????????????????
— Jalan M2? (@jkid_2) January 16, 2014
Just as things on twitter started to settle down my phone started buzzing again and this time it was a seriously unexpected commit from 4-star DB and son of NFL Pro-Bowler, Troy Vincent who turned the “Red Light” and stirred up a ton of excitement. Vincent was a long time commit of Penn St but when Bill O’Brien left he started thinking about his future. After talking with new Penn St. coach James Franklin, Vincent felt like Franklin wanted his own guys there and started looking around again. Coach Doeren has a long standing relationship with Vincent and that is what he cited in a recent Rivals.com interview
“I’ve known Coach Doeren and the majority of his staff since I was in the seventh grade,” he said. “It’s kind of like I’m just going back to my roots.”
The son of the former NFL star by the same name says his flip from Penn State to N.C. State was not an uninformed decision. Vincent committed to N.C. State during coach Doeren’s in-home visit.
“At first we were just sitting there talking about the school and the program,” Vincent said. “He told us about how he coaches and his philosophy. This wasn’t an emotional decision. We had done research. I’ve talked to former players that played for him at different schools. They spoke highly of him and everything I heard was consistent. Everybody felt the same way. My mom and dad were just as excited as I was.”
Shortly after Vincent’s commit, 3-star safety Shawn Boone turned the ‘Red Light’ but with a little more controversy. The coaches tweeted out the red light excitement but shortly after Boone himself tweeted
I will being announcing were I`m going to spend the next 3-4years of my life learning and playing football JAN.23.2014
— Shawn Boone (@__Boone4) January 17, 2014
So Wolfpack Nation will have to wait for this one but we think it is 99% sure that he has committed but just wants to have an announcement ceremony for his friends and family. So we’ll keep an eye on that situation but we here at SFN are still pretty excited about the possibility of Boone joining #Pack14.
Where does that leave #Pack14?
With 28 committed, Coach Doeren’s first full class currently stands at 20th in the class rankings and 3rd in the ACC behind Clemson & FSU but there is still potential for a few more. State is going hard at the WR, RB and OT positions and would love to sign 4-star WR from Durham Trevion Thompson, 4-Star RB from Durham Donte Thomas-Williams, and either 3-star UVA commit Will Richardson or 3 star former Mizzou commit Zach Hudson. Thompson and Richardson have already officially visited NC State and DTW & Hudson will OV next weekend. Realistically I think we can take 2 of the 4 but TT, DTW and WR are guys the staff loves and would make room for if they all wanted to commit.
